It’s not that the Dodgers are the Godfather 3 of the sports world, exactly. I mean, while we can argue whether the third installment of the great movie franchise ever should have been made or not (not), the 2012 Los Angeles entry into the National League baseball season pretty much had to be. Imagine the scheduling mess with one less team, for openers.

Oh, and remember how poor Sophia Coppola was absolutely savaged by the press for what was at that time her chosen profession of acting? I suppose Juan Uribe is the directing scion in this scenario, and perhaps he’ll go on to greatness in another line of work, as Coppola did. And the sooner the better.

But look, L.A. has been an incredibly streaky club this year, as frustrating to watch over a stretch of time as any in recent memory. Just about every time they lose a few games – heartbreakers usually, with perhaps only a lone clutch hit the difference between victory and defeat – and we, the fans throw up our hands in resignation, the Dodgers do something dramatic to give us hope.

In other words, every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in, literally forcing me to stick with every twist and turn of the next game, the next series of games, and let’s face it, the rest of the 2012 championship season.

Going back just as far as Friday the 13th – July 13th – the Dodgers won the first game coming out of the All-Star break before losing four straight, putting them at 48-44 and deader than dead. Seemingly. Then they win five in a row, only to get swept three by the Cards in St. Louis.

Just when all seems lost, L.A. beats the living crap out of the Giants in San Francisco, sweeping the three-game series by a combined score of 19-3.

Feeling good, Los Angeles? Well forget that, because you’re about to watch Arizona outscore you 19-4, with a humiliating sweep of their own.

Then a sweep of the Cubs starts a nine-out-of-12 run, plus a stirring seven-of-ten road trip, with Los Angeles beating two tough teams in Pittsburgh and Atlanta back to back.

The Dodgers float home from Dixie almost without need of an airplane, proud to be 67-55 on August 20 and primed for San Francisco. Only somebody forgot to tell the Giants, who promptly beat them in yet another sweep, and even the baldest among us is pulling his hair out, violently.

Next comes a little two-game win streak, highlighted by an Adrian Gonzalez home run in his first at bat after the blockbuster trade with Boston, then three losses in a row, a win and two more downers at the hands of the Dbacks this past Thursday and Friday.

And I don’t know about you, but after those last two defeats – to a sub-.500 team which had just lost six straight before hitting town – I was about as fed up with this bunch as could possibly be.

So of course Josh Beckett spins a beauty Saturday, the Dodgers get homers from Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier, and the bullpen assures a 2-1 win, with Brandon League saving his first game as a National Leaguer. The savvy Dodgers faithful is uplifted, but skeptical.

Sunday was one of those great but not-seen-recently come-from-behind jobs, with Gonzalez driving in the tying and winning runs with a bottom of the ninth ringing double to right. Shane Victorino slides majestically into home with a flourish that had to have you thinking, “OK, this is it, this is it, THIS IS IT! The Dodgers are on their way!!!” But who the hell knows?

The obligatory “chemistry” concept has been discussed a lot lately, and I say this to that: chemistry is a class most of us absolutely sucked at in high school. We didn’t have a clue, and neither do the Dodgers. Not about chemistry. Not really.

Don Mattingly is closest to the answer when he talks about winning bringing good chemistry, and about how that’s all the team has time for anyway. What were they to do, after all, keep the alleged good-chemistry-team-that couldn’t-win team together or make the necessary changes and risk chemistry?

Yesterday’s victory was either a trend-setter or it wasn’t, but I’d certainly rather have the W than the L right about now. And it’s the first win of its kind with this new group, and that’s got to mean something. I think. Maybe.

641 responses

This isn’t the NFL, where going to a new team means an entirely new defensive and offensive game plan. This is Major League Baseball. There’s a guy that throws the ball and you’re supposed to hit it with your bat, period. Doesn’t matter what team you go to.
And yes, I’m going to be trying to get my bathroom sink unplugged.

@DeathByYoungblood he can’t destroy them all by himself. he’ll try but he can’t. no one here thought it was a good trade, so there really is no suprise. maybe just how bad he is, not that he’d be bad in general.

I kinda thought he’d be good in the second half too, because of hit track record, but I didn’t really believe in my heart. I really did think he’d suck. and he does. they have a bunch of off days coming, so hopefully they skip his turn. and/or replace him with ely.

ely will be first up if blanton gets bombed, so we might just see it today.

So, a commercial just came on for United Mileage Plus. I really don’t have an opinion on that, but there’s a man and woman in that commercial who are taking a vacation together. They seem to really like each other. Thing is, the woman is Jack’s wife. She was just in a Jack in the Box commercial during the previous break – with Jack – together in their living room! The living room in the house that Jack paid for by creating dangerously fattening yet oh so delicious fast food delicacies.Considering I don’t trust people who never change their expression, Jack to me appears to be a loose cannon. I think she’s gonna get whacked. I’m not condoning it, but well… he’s got the kind of money that can make anyone disappear. Serious quiche. You know, the kind of cheddar that buys elections.

we’re all too smart to expect anything more from this guy. just because he throws a few shutout innings, you just know he’s going to five up a couple more before they can pull him. the question is, will they get back in the game first, only for him to give the lead right back, or will he just let the lead get bigger.

“Professional Baseball & American Legion: “OBR 2.00 – Strike Zone is the area over home plate, the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the knee cap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.”

@Tom in San Mateo @Tom @Johnny not at all. the argument holds no water. it’s full of holes. the people will drown. it makes no sense. just look up the numbers, look at a few boxscores, read a month’s worth of game stories. hanley will be a top ten mvp vote getter. scutaro will sign a minor league contract in february.

@Howard Cole I went through that back on July 11. Be at the hospital at 0530 for a 0730 surgery. No coffee, no nothin’. Woke up in recovery at 10:15, minus a uvula. Well, minus some cancer cells on it, too.

@Howard Cole
yeah, a better W-L record than Buzzaw and era slightly higher than Buzzsaw. before all those runs he had very low era. we’ll see.how he does. Kershaw would have fantasitc record if he his team could have delivered the lumber on time and consistently.

@Tom in San Mateo well, I was throwing you a bone. I’ll take the 4-2 start and another crappy performance from vogelsong. he’ll give up more I’m quite sure. then they’re going to have to start thinking about whether he’s 100% healthy or not….never one of bochy’s better things.

I did do the comparison, john, and was admittedly surprised to see scutaro at .322 as a giant. but of course, hanley bests him in every other category. plus, as I told tom, hanley can continue the pace, scutaro can’t. not to save his life.

@Johnny Dodger
Scutaro tripled and doubled tonight so far, knocked in two. and look at the runs scored. And, yes, he has much better batting average since he got to the G’s than Hanley has since he got to the Dodgers. Way higher. You Can Look It Up, Al

@Tom in San Mateo @Johnny Dodger I’ll take hanley’s production, but scutaro has been great. like I said, I wanted him here before we had any idea about how good cruz was gonna be. and I’m not looking back on that one.

oh well. victorino really has been a disappointment. he shows in almost every at bat. but at least they got stults pitch count right up to kershaw’s 78 to 79. that’s key. stults goes a maximum of seven and maybe just the six, with heart of the order up next inning.

@Johnny Dodger
I hated his going for the home-run record here. such huge fanfare although everybody knew he was a fucking cheater. I was happey when he was gone and the Giants could finally have a team that were all in it together instead of BARRY BONDS and a supporting cast.

@Tom in San Mateo I WAS an admirer of Mr. Bonds when he was with Pittsburgh – he was a hell of a player, and probably could have made it into the HofF on his own.
You look at a photo of him then, and after when he bulked up with the Giants and it’s obvious what was happening.

@DeathByYoungblood I don’t think they need that many runs. they can win some 2-1 games, and some 4-2, 3-1 and a few with more runs. I think the hitting’s gonna be ok. kemp will get it going again. they’ll score enough.

@Johnny Dodger
I grew up with Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, etc. To me Barry Bonds never got near their baseball greatness mainly because he was an a-hole to his teammates and once the steroids thing raised its ugly head it was obvious it was true from his appearance and he became a bigger pos to me.

@Johnny Dodger
I live three blocks from a field Bonds played at as a kid. He used to hit homers off a tall bank building across El Camin Real – main throroughfare all the way down the peininsula – when he was fourteen. He didn’t need to cheat. He got jealous seeing Mark McGwire go nutss on the Maris record and wanted the same adulation. He really screwed up on that.

@Tom in San Mateo No, he didn’t need to cheat – that’s what I was talking about when he played with Pittsburgh. He was a star, period, doing it on talent.
I still remember his famous recliner in the Giant’s clubhouse later on.

@wesparkerinia it’s frustrating, but they only need one of these per game to win, and that’s what they’ve done the last three games. nobody does it every time. but hanley’s at bat was the killer. cruz’ll come through.

@Johnny Dodger
yea, the recliner. hell, I think he tried to move two recliners into the clubhouse. could be wrong on that. and he had his “trainer” with him all the time who, I think, was finally banned from the locker room. his personal trainer I think did two prison stints from refusing to rat out his client, Bonds.

@Howard Cole @DeathByYoungblood Just replayed it a couple of times in slo-mo. He does get caught off, but Headley was playing just a few feet off the bag and when the ball is hit Gonzo’s was already stepping towards the plate. Bad luck and bad baserunning combined.

@Howard Cole @Tom
a Dodger in an exhibition game – forget his name – but i think he might’ve hit two. it was a dodger in an odd pre-season game right before the season started. guy hardly known for being power hitter.

I would have guessed that Sutton had 3 straight seasons of at least 200 strikeouts. He came oh so close to 5 seasons in a row starting in 1969. He had over 200 Ks 4 out of 5 years only to miss in 1971 with 194.

@Howard Cole
I answered. below. it was a Dodger in pre-season game – and odd pre-season game right before the 2000 season opened. I think the guy hit two or three homers that night. A dodger not known for being a power hitter and it shocked everybody, although it was only a pre-season game. remember it well but not how many homers. know it was at least two

@DeathByYoungblood on teams that win championships, people come through out of nowhere. shoot, maybe uribe will win a game – one game – with a big hit. and they’d not only rip his jersey off, they’d strip him naked right down to his jockstrap.

@Tom in San Mateo Scutaro is 36 and In 11 seasons he’s never batted .300 (until now) and never had more than 60 RBIs (he’s getting close). The guys a middle infielder who has 52 stolen bases in 11 years… Definitely PEDs ; ).

@Howard Cole @DeathByYoungblood Yep, I love me some Amy Adams too. I don’t know if I can sit through Clint going all Grand Torino on a baseball field though. Maybe he’ll at least ramble incoherently at a mitt in the dugout for 10 minutes…

@rotarandy well they did just win three straight, but this is a step back. we’ll see if they can right the ship tomorrow. I’m not counting on it, with harang vs dodger killer clayton richard, but we gotta keep the faith. well, we don’t have to, but you get the idea.

right now I’m more concerned with the wild card. they lost a game there. but what are ya gonna do? I’m not going to let myself get too bummed about this one. I’ll meet you here tomorrow night and we’ll keep a good thought for a series victory. that’s all I ever ask. just win series. and they can do that tomorrow, then the off day and it’s onto frisco.

@Howard Cole @Tom
remember when ballplayers just grabbed their own balls for a pick-me-up at the plate. don’t see that anymore. now they buy it in a bottle or a tube. HAHAHA. hell, I crack up myself sometimes

jansen will be ok. and god forbid, the dodgers actually do something to prevent an injury like billingsley’s. they do this over and over and over again. he was hurt, they sent him back out there and now he’s hurt much much worse.

almost a big fight in SF. sharp hit to Belt. Belt fires to third for a force but he wasn’t near the bag but I guess he put a tag on the runner coming into third and the runner got pissed off at Sandoval and went after him.

@Howard Cole @Tom @Tom
he probably did. the throw from Belt caught him off-guard and the runner, seeing Panda was not in position to make force, went in to knock the ball loose and ran into The Beer Truck. sandoval probably did overreact. he screwed up a basic move. he should have been at the base prepared to take throw for force.

@Tom in San Mateo I can speak for every last one of us confidently and say texas. the 2002 was the tough one. giants and angels. man, was that tough for me. I wanted rain until january, but grudingly rooted for anaheim.

@Howard Cole @Tom
2002 was tough for you. Shit, I was sitting in a pub to watch the sixth game and Gawd what a horrible ending. when the Angels went up in that game I knew it was over for the G’s and it was.

I like both the A’s and the G’s. too bad you don’t like both the Angels and the D’s. makes the season better, esp if one of your teams stinks that year.

@Howard Cole @Johnny To me, Howard, the Dodgers not making the playoffs is only the second worst thing in the world. The very first worst thing in the/my world is the Giants ending up ahead of the Dodgers at the end of the season, whatever the standings.